Two friends from Alberta are fighting for replacing Justin Trudeau as the Liberal and Canadian leader, just as the country faces generational crisis due to the threat of tariffs and sovereignty of the Trump administration.
Approximately 400,000 liberals were eligible to vote in the party's key leadership race to decide who would replace Trudeau and who would mark a new era in Canadian politics. Anyone who wins will need to call a general election that must be held by October, but it could happen sooner.
The results of the election will be announced at a special event in the capital Ottawa on Sunday around 6:30pm.
Who is the candidate?
The race is between the former governor of the Bank of Canada and Mark Carney, 59, of the Bank of England, a well-known green investor and former finance minister Christia Freeland (56). Research shows that Kearney is a front runner.
The 37-year-old candidate, 37-year-old Karina Gould, is trying to make a mark as the party's future leader, and is trying to distinguish her from the other two as more clearly speaking and left-leaning. Businessman and former MP Frank Bayliss, 62, is also running.
Freeland and Carney share similar backgrounds, both of whom are considered technically competent centres who prefer fiscal discipline.
Freeland had a successful career in international journalism, but for the past decade he was a prominent Canadian politician. Her records as Minister of Finance and former Minister of Foreign Affairs are under close scrutiny. Freeland's detractors take her responsibility to not stand up to Mr Trudeau, whom she served, when his policies become increasingly unpopular.
She listened to criticism and tried to reintroduce herself into Canadians as a grassroots candidate to abandon unpopular policies such as Trudeau's tax on carbon emissions.
And she pitched herself as the perfect person to stand up to President Trump when he set up tariffs on Canada and launches threats to the country's sovereignty. Trump has a strong dislike for Freeland, who has called her “toxic”, “smacking” and “incompetent” in recent months.
Freeland renegotiated a North American free trade agreement on behalf of Canada during Trump's first term. This treaty is bound by Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Freeland is married to a reporter for the New York Times at the Culture Desk. Mr. Carney is married and has four children.
Mr. Carney was not a traditional politician before bidding for party leaders while he was attracting public attention for most of his career.
He joined the public sector in 2004 as a senior official in the Treasury, serving under successive liberal and conservative governments, and was later tapped to lead the central banks of Canada and the UK.
He was praised for his performances in both posts, and Canada helped him navigate the 2008 financial crisis and pilot the UK through Brexit, but critics accused Brexit of inciting fear by suggesting that Brexit would hurt the country's economy.
What are their campaign promises?
Carney's plans focus on improving Canada's economy, which is suffering from inflation and low productivity. The high cost of housing has become a central issue in Canada, with Carney pledging to build 4 million homes over the years.
Like Freeland, Carney plans to abandon Trudeau's carbon tax and replace it with a pricing system that needs to be paid to industrial polluters to consumers to reduce carbon emissions.
Freeland's platform focuses on policy areas that have become the Liberal Party's debt, such as addressing the shortage of Canadian physicians, increasing military spending, and countering foreign interference in politics.
How will the day unfold?
Liberal Party members were able to vote online after registering with the party and verifying their identity. Voting begins on February 26th and follows a ranked voting system. This means voters rank candidates of their preference.
If a candidate doesn't win completely on the first count, the system can produce amazing results. Some candidates and voters have expressed concern about the voting platform after experiencing technical glitches in the identity verification process.
The results will be tracked on the Liberals website, and it is expected that supporters will gather around 6:30pm at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa, the convention hall, not far from Congressional Hill, to announce the results.
Trudeau, who will close for nearly a decade as prime minister and 13 years as Liberal leader, is expected to be present.
The new leader could be sworn as prime minister within the next week. The lawsuit follows the Westminster Parliamentary system that continues in the UK and elsewhere.
What happens next?
What happens next is not entirely mapped and depends in part on who the new leader is.
Mr. Carney has not been elected and does not hold a seat in Congress. His campaign indicated that he would call federal elections shortly after being nominated as prime minister.
Freeland, who holds a seat on parliament, told The New York Times in an interview that he would consider whether a quick election would be a good idea given the ongoing threat of tariffs and the impact on Canada's economy.
Federal elections must be held in accordance with Canadian regulations by October. The Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilierble, has long maintained a point lead over 20 in polls, but the gap has been closed since Trudeau announced his resignation and Trump began moving against Canada.
The latest vote suggests that most respondents would choose Carney over Poirierle if they led the liberals to the election. Voting is seen at a narrower margin, but voters will also choose Freeland over Poilierhull.
The vote also shows Canadians prefer Mr. Carney and Mr. Freeland.
